For an industry still resetting itself after Peak TV’s boom and bust, this year’s Mania series offered the rarest of commodities: hope.
The executive side may have lacked some of its usual star power — there were no U.S. network heads or global broadcast heads among this year’s keynote speakers — but the festival’s official lineup was among the strongest in years.
The Mania series is off to a great start Covenants -Hulu The Handmaid’s Tale Championship sequel Battle after battle Breakthrough Chase Infiniti – and never looked back, with bold, boundary-pushing offerings from all over the world and of all genres. Highlights included The audacitya satire of Silicon Valley from AMC succession Producer Jonathan Glatzer; Disadvantagesa German office comedy series based on a Buster Keaton-style silent comedy; and my brothera Swedish family drama as dark and bleak as a Nordic winter.
It felt like a return to the quality, if not the quantity, of shows from the Peak TV era. Networks and streamers, who have spent the past few years cutting costs, may be regaining their appetite for risk.
“There was this feeling [post Peak-TV] That everything is conservative now. The IP address must be large, and it must be a large book. “This should be an old, boring genre,” said Steve Matthews, head of script and creative at Banijay Entertainment. “But I’m starting to hear: ‘Can you give us something a little more daring?’ Buyers are saying: ‘Come on, guys, up your game.’”
“Great storytelling and great distinctive voices are still to come,” agreed Johannes Jensen, Head of Scripted at Banijay. “But financing shows is becoming more difficult, taking longer, and we have to be creative in how we put financing together. [The days] When the global broadcasters come and finance everything is gone.
Belgian director Adel El-Arabi said that the first years following the peak witnessed “a trend where everything became safe, in films and TV shows.”Rebels, Bad boys for life), attending the Mania series with The best immigranta Flemish dystopian drama about the rise of the far right in Europe, which he executive produced. “[But] Nowadays, if you want to stand out, you have to be bold and brave. It doesn’t have to be shock for shock’s sake, but try to address the things that make people think, that get people talking about your TV show.
This risky TV that can translate into real ratings seems to have been spawned by some of the Series Mania’s most exciting performances. Spanish premiere of the film Anatomy of a momenta historical drama about the failed 1981 coup that nearly toppled Spain’s fledgling democracy, had the best launch ever for an original series on the pay-TV platform Moviestar Plus+. More than one million Swedish viewers watched the first episode of the Swedish legal drama Burden of justice At public broadcaster SVT, it beat initial expectations by 163%.
“We offered, my brother“The retention rate for series in Sweden was 98 percent over Christmas,” Matthews said. “It’s one of the darkest series you’ll ever see.”
The streaming giants used Series Mania to announce that they are spending money again, and are ready to make big changes to original stories.
Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, announced a first-look overall deal with Domingo Corral, the Spanish producer and former Moviestar Plus+ executive whose credits include Anatomy of a moment The Oscar-nominated feature Sirat. Angela Jayne, Disney+’s head of content across EMEA, said it was “ramping up production” and revealed an eclectic slate of new projects including a documentary about Welsh soul singer Daffy, an Italian murder mystery and a Turkish comedy about a 350-year-old virgin vampire who falls in love with a human.
“Our message today is more series, more series, more series,” Thomas DuBois, head of French originals at Amazon Prime Video, said at a Series Mania session on Tuesday, highlighting Prime Video’s non-English slate, including upcoming French YA dramas. Campus driversadapted from the CS Quill book series.
Not to be outdone, New8, the co-production alliance between eight public radio stations in northwest Europe, unveiled its upcoming lineup on Wednesday. Environmental excitement included Phoenixwhich appeared at Berlinale Market Selects last month; Red light districtt, an ambitious Dutch drama chronicling the rise and fall of a World War II Jewish orphan who built a sex club empire in Amsterdam; And Belgian action series Huntersabout counter-terrorism special operations teams, which Bad boys for life Directors Adel El Arbi and Bilal Falah are the executive producers.
The European co-producers got more good news on Wednesday when Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset unveiled a landmark co-production treaty aimed at helping boost cross-border funding for ambitious European series.
All of which has created a more realistic, yet quietly bullish, mood among those on the ground. There is a feeling that industry contraction, rather than killing creativity, may force companies to sharpen their focus.
“If everything contracts, you can either play it safe and avoid the risks — or you can double down on the quality,” Matthews said. “Much fewer TVs are being produced now, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as what disappears is the weaker material. For the industry, for the arts and for the masses, it is difficult to say that this is not a good thing.”
